SATANISM AND THE “INCOMPETENT ROMAN CURIA” – The ritual murders of young people linked to Satanism, rock, and drugs in northern Milan continues to grip the attention of Italian public opinion. The reason for these lines is to report an interesting interview with Chief Exorcist in Rome, Fr. Gabriele Amorth. But first let me summarize what is going on there for my reader.

On the night of January 23-24, 2004, Andrea Volpe (age 27), leader of the Beasts of Satan heavy rock band, and Elizabeth Ballarin (18), invited his ex-girlfriend Mariangella Pezzotta (27) to meet them at a place on the outskirts of Milan. She showed up and a violent argument ensued. Volpe shot Mariangella in the mouth with a gun. He called Nicola Sapone (25), another rock band performer, to the scene. The three of them transported the corpse to the nearby mountains, massacred the body with a spade, and then left her semi-buried in a thick grove. Sapone returned to his house. Volpe and Ballarin tried to get rid of Mariangella’s car, but since they were under the influence of drugs, they had an accident and were caught by the police. Later, Sapone also was arrested.

The mutilated bodies of sect members were found in this hole in the Somma Lombardo woods

The police began to question whether there was a correlation between this crime and the disappearance in early 1998 of Fabio Tollis (16), another rock musician, and Chiara Marino (19), a rock singer. Both were linked to Volpe and drugs. On June 5, Volpe, seeking leniency in the murder of his ex-girlfriend, led police to the bodies of Fabio and Chiara buried in a five-foot-deep pit in a woods of north Milan.

It soon became evident the arrested band members, as well as Fabio and Chiara, were members of the sect the Beasts of Satan, the same name as the band and headed by none other than Andrea Volpe. The files of a number of other mysterious murders and suicides in northern Milan, particularly those that occurred when the moon was full or new, are being re-opened to see if they are related to the sect. Links have already been established in two of the cases: the murder of another of Volpe’s girlfriends, Maddalena Russo, which took place on Friday the 13th in September, 1985; and the supposed suicide of another band member, Giuseppe Bontade, in a car accident in 2000.

The arrested sect members started to talk, other members of the Beasts of Satan were called to testify, and, according to online posts in Italian newspapers and magazines (up to June 30), which I am summarizing, the following version of the Fabio/Chiara murders appears to be the most probable.

Heavy metal rock is immersed in an ambience of violence, sex and macabre Satanic rituals

Some days before a full moon night in January 1998 Volpe ordered a member of the group to dig a large hole in the woods of Somma Lombardo, north of Milan. On the evening of January 17, a group of 8-10 people met to party at Midnight, a rock club on the outskirts of Milan where they used to perform. They left in several cars and re-gathered in the woods near the site where the hole had been dug.

Cult members realized that a human sacrifice would be offered to Satan. No one knew who would be slaughtered. Then Volpe pointed to 19-year-old Chiara, known as “the vestal of Satan,” and advanced with a knife to kill her. She also had a knife and tried to defend herself. Fabio, a tall, strong 16-year-old, came to her defense. Volpe and the others attacked Fabio who, stabbed and hit twice on the head with a heavy hammer, fell senseless into the five-foot-deep pit. Chiara, stabbed in the heart, followed him shortly after. Both were still breathing, Volpe jumped into the hole with a spade and finished them off. They were buried, blood was everywhere, the cult members burned their gloves and left. The next day, Volpe returned to the scene and spread several gallons of ammonia around the site to keep the dogs away.

Two years later, in 2000, members of the sect drugged Giuseppe Bontade and challenged him to drive at a high speed, causing the car accident that killed him. He knew about the killings and was threatening to go to the police.

According to testimonies, the various ritual murders were ordered by someone higher than Volpe, whose name cannot be revealed under threat of death. This occult person would be the one who supplied drugs to the group and acted as the link between the Beasts of Satan and a larger network of Satanism in Italy.

With the torrent of news on this case, as well as some similar cases that have taken place in the last few years, it is understandable that Fr. Gabriele Amorth, the leading exorcist in Italy, would be contacted by the media to give his opinion on Satanism and the way to stop it.

Fr. Amorth accuses the Roman Curia of incompetence regarding Exorcism

The Italian magazine Espresso asked Fr. Amorth some questions. Here are some of his most significant answers:

Question – What are the links between Satanists and the Devil?

Answer – There are two types: those who adore the Devil, celebrate Satanic masses, have their own priests and hierarchy; and those who don’t believe in Satan, but engage in actions that are either iniquitous or against nature. The latter is more dangerous.

Question – John Paul II made exorcisms over three persons possessed by the Devil. Did they work?

Answer – No, the third one did not. I have been taking care of her since 1998. It is really a sad case.

Question – Besides the Pope, what is the state of belief in the Devil in the Church?

Answer – Too low. The Devil is very pleased with that, since this gives him free reign to do his work. The Church went from one excess to another. Yesterday, it was the obsessive witches’ hunt that instead of exorcizing them, burned them; today, she has abandoned everything: devils and exorcists. The result is that there is not a single exorcist in entire Catholic areas of various countries: Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. I admire the Italian Bishops. They don’t understand anything, but at least they have named exorcists. Last year we had a meeting: we were 170 exorcists.

Question – Could you explain how the Bishops don’t understand anything?

Answer – Because they, like all the priests, also studied in seminaries. And for some time the seminaries have no longer been teaching on angels and devils, nothing on exorcism, nothing on the sins against the First Commandment. “You shall not have false gods before Me” – which means the condemnation of Magic, Spiritism, Satanism.

Question – And what about the Roman Curia?

Answer – The same incompetence. It issued a new ritual that is a disaster for us exorcists. It forbids us to perform exorcisms in cases of spells, when it is known that 90 percent of the cases of possession come from them. It also forbids us to make an exorcism if we don’t have a prior certainty that there is a diabolic action, but we only can acquire this certainty by carrying out an exorcism. We are lucky that the old ritual continues to be valid. I use it, otherwise I would have to quit my job (Espresso, online edition, June 11-17, 2004; see also interview with Fr. Amorth on the new ritual – 30 Giorni, June 2000, reprinted in
Christian Order).

For me, this impressive Italian case is no less grave than the ritual killing of Sharon Tate by Charles Manson and his group. In view of it, my commentary is this: Vatican II declared that there were no longer heretics, but only “separated brethren.” Along this lines the Conciliar Church indulges voodoo sects and avoids serious combats against the Devil, this “separated angel.” We are seeing that Satan himself is taking advantage of this accommodating tolerance to spread his cult ever more broadly, with rituals that often involve the most macabre violence.